Banana Chocolate Walnut Muffin Tops

I came across a gluten free muffin top recipe and decided to modify it a bit. Nothing tastes better than gluten! (To those of us without celiacs or a sensitivity, anyway) So I added back in some gluten and swapped the coconut sugar for raw sugar and it worked like a charm! 😃

Here goes kids! Pre-heat the oven to 355 degrees. In one bowl mix:

- 1 ripe banana

- 1/2 cup melted earth balance

- 1/3 cup raw sugar

- 1/2 tbsp vanilla 

- 1/2 tbsp molasses

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp baking soda 

- 1/2 tsp nutmeg

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Hand mix and once mixed well, add in:

- 1 & 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

- 1/2 cup chocolate chips

- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Mix again and then using a large cookie scoop drop onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and enjoy! 

BBQ Seitan Ribz!

Saucy. Crunchy. Chewy. Ribz. 

That is what Faith requested. After trying lots of different recipes for Seitan Ribz I found online, this is the best one yet! 

You'll need:

2 cups vital wheat gluten 

4 tbsp nooch

2 tbsp smoked paprika 

4 tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1.5 cups vegan needless broth, concentrated* 

1/4 cup green lentils (canned or cooked)

2 tsp liquid smoke (I used hickory)

2 tbsp tamari 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Whisk all dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. In a food processor, blend the green lentils with the tamari, liquid smoke and enough broth to make a paste. When the lentils are sufficiently broken down, add the remaining broth and pulse. 

*for the broth, when I make it from "cube" form it calls for 1/2 a cube for 1 cup of boiling water. Instead, I do 1 whole cube to 1.5 cups water to make it more concentrated. 

I have a ninja system, so I swap the blade for a dough hook and add the dry to the wet. If you don't, you can mix with a spatula by hand until you think your arm might fall off. Then go for another two or three minutes and stop.

Once your dough is well mixed, transfer onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and punch/hammer/beat into as rectangular of a shape as you can. The dough will be elastic like but stay with it. It's ok if some parts are thicker or thinner. Even some holes are ok; they'll all get sauced and bbq'd later anyway. 

Bake for 25 minutes, then flip over and bake for another 5. Once cooled, cut one slice down the middle and every inch or so horizontally into "rib" shapes. 

From here, you can sauce and BBQ on the top rack for 5 minutes per side or marinade in BBQ sauce for a day or two before grilling. 

Grilling tip: Cook on the top rack, because they're already cooked you just want to crisp them up and with the amount of sugar in BBQ sauce they can burn really easily. 

Also, reserve a little extra sauce to drown them in while plated and there you have it. 

Saucy. Crunchy. Chewy. Ribz. Enjoy!

Pistachio Halva Shortbread!

It has been an EMBARRASSING amount of time since my last post. I have so many blog posts rolling around in my head (there's lots of room!) but have been really busy and unable to put fingers to keyboard to make it happen. 

I'm hoping that in the next couple of weeks so I can find some time to sit down and get them all typed up and ready to rock 'n roll, so please hang tight! 

In the meantime, I will start with this gem of a recipe. In my fridge has been a sad lonely container of pistachio halva. I bought it a while ago with the intention of doing something with it, so I wasn't sure what. I got the idea to do something with halva after eating one of my friend Ruben's dee-licious halva cupcakes. 

After a quick google search, I found a great recipe that I was able to veganize. 

These are easy to make and absolutely beautiful- not to mention delicious. 

You'll need:

1 cup flour 

1/4 cup sugar 

1/2 cup salted Earth Balance, softened 

1 tsp vanilla 

24 1/4" halva cubes 

Topping:

1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

1 tsp coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and while it's pre-heating toast the sesame seeds and then set aside in a small bowl.

In a large bowl whisk the flour and sugar together. Next, mix in the half cup of Earth Balance until well mixed. Finally add the teaspoon of vanilla. Knead the mixture until it is consistent. 

Chop your halva (which usually comes in a large brick) into 1/4" cubes. 

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop 24 teaspoon size cookies onto a parchment lined sheet. Next, press the halva cube into the centre of the cookie and form the batter around it, leaving the top exposed completely. 

Now place the cookie sheet in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. This will stop the halva from spilling over while baking. 

When they're ready, bake for 20 minutes until the edges start to turn golden brown. 

While cooling, melt your chocolate and coconut oil mix over a double boiler and pour into a piping bag. 

Next, drizzle the chocolate over the cookies in any desired pattern (I did thatched) and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds. 

Cool completely and enjoy!

Coconut Nog Cookies!

Ok, you would think I miss the holidays or something baking these in the middle of January. Truth be told, I just have SO MUCH nog left over from the holidays that I don't know what to do with it all. If that isn't a first world problem, I don't know what is! 

Without further adieu...

2 cups flour 

2 tsp baking soda 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg 

3/4 cup sugar 

1 tsp vanilla 

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup coconut nog + 1 tsp 

You know the drill. Mix the dry, add the wet and portion onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. I needed to add a tsp or so extra of coconut nog because the mix was too dry.  I have a small cookie scoop that I use. These will spread a little but not much. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes and then let cool. 

These are delicious on their own or you can glaze them! I made two different glazes.

Spiced Rum Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp spiced rum

1.5 tsp coconut nog 

Mix until thick, but wet. Then dollop a 1/4 tsp on top and it will run down slowly. If it's too thin it will just make your cookies soggy. 

To make it un-boozy you simply omit the rum and increase the coconut nog. 

Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top and enjoy! 

Kidney Bean Salad

I don't know what else to call this. 

I started off trying to make mock tuna. I diced all of my onions and then opened a can of what I thought was chick peas... 

FOILED! It was kidney beans! WTF?!  I literally spent the next 30 minutes tearing the pantries apart in search of chick peas. There were none. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?! That's like running out of nooch, or cashews. IMPOSSIBLE. I am still in total disbelief, maybe even denial. (They're here SOMEWHERE!!!) 

In the mean time, I had a large red onion chopped and a hankering for a Just Mayo based salad. Mock tuna was out- but what could I do with kidney beans? 

This. I did this. And sweet mother jeebus it is divine. Here is my best recollection of the recipe with made up measurements. 

1 can kidney beans (28oz)

1/2 cup Just Mayo 

3-4 garlic dill pickles, chopped

1 medium/large red onion chopped

1 tbsp tamari 

1 tbsp horseradish

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything except the onions, pickles and beans. Then add the pickles and onions. Last, add the beans and stir to coat. Now, eat directly from mixing bowl, or you could top your favourite cracker, load up your favourite bread, wrap it up. Whatever you do, just enjoy! It's delicious!

*Do you ever make something SO good, but it's impossible to take a good photo of? It's late and I'm tired and quite frankly, keep eating my model. This is the bean salad on a toasted jalapeño baguette. (Teeny bite size to feign sophistication! 😆)

Waffle All The Things!

It's not a new craze, but waffling food other than waffles is pretty amazing. Waffle irons are pretty versatile. You can cook tofu, hash browns, cookies and more. 

I wanted something brunchy today and decided to try an experiment. Sometimes they work, sometimes not so much. Lucky for you all, this one worked. 

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Waffles

1/2 a banana, smashed

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup organic pastry flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla 

1/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup almond milk 

Pinch of salt

You know the drill. Mix dry, mix wet, combine and pour into the waffle iron. Voila. 

The shell crisped up nicely in the waffle iron and the inside was cakey and oatey like I wanted it to be. The chocolate chips got a little toasty for my liking- in future I would probably add them after the fact, or just make a chocolate drizzle. This would also work well with raisins.

Being the glutton that I am, I added coconut whipped cream and cinnamon to mine. You should do the same. It was spectacular. 

Note: if you wanted to make it sweeter (I didn't add any sugar to the mix) you could add 1/4 cup of sugar.

 

Sausage Rolls!

Seitan is something that I usually buy, but rarely make. Which is silly, because it's not difficult to do and tastes so much better home made. 

The basics of Seitan are wheat gluten and spices (the "dry"), mixed with water/stock and a binding agent (the "wet"). When I make my Seitan ribs I use natural peanut butter as the binding agent, but for sausages I wanted a different flavour. I have seen in other recipes that some people use beans so I thought I'd give it a try. 

To make the sausages you'll need:

The "wet":

3/4 cup baked beans in tomato sauce

2 tbsp minced garlic

3 tbsp tamari

1/2 tbsp hickory liquid smoke 

2 tbsp chili oil (or olive if you don't want them spicy)

1.5 cups vegan beef broth 

The "dry":

2 cups wheat gluten 

1/3 cup nooch 

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp ground sage

1/2 tsp onion powder

In a food processor thoroughly mix the wet ingredients until smooth. Switch the blade to a dough hook and add in the dry mix until a batter forms evenly.

Using lengths of heavy duty aluminum foil  add even mounds of batter and roll into sausage lengths, twist ends closed. Repeat until all batter is used, 8-10 sausages depending on size.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes and let cool in the foil. 

Now that you have sausages, the possibilities are endless! BBQ and top with sauerkraut and mustard, slice and fry for pasta dishes, or create some great holiday apps! 

To make sausage rolls, once cooled you need to slice them in half and cut into 1.5" sections. 

Roll out your puffed pastry and wrap each square evenly. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with specialty mustard, and enjoy!